What's the difference between an atheist and an agnostic?

Question

people have probably asked this a million times, but I don't know the answer. I could google it but people's perspectives are always more interesting.
Why are you either?

Answer 1

a·the·ist: n. One who disbelieves or denies the existence of God or gods.

ag·nos·tic: n. 1. One who believes that it is impossible to know whether there is a God. 2. One who is skeptical about the existence of God but does not profess true atheism. 3. One who is doubtful or noncommittal about something.

An atheist states firmly that there is no God, while an agnostic stipulates that there may or may not be a God.

Answer 2

atheist = a (without) theist (god belief)
agnostic = a (without) gnostic (knowledge)

So, an atheists doesn't believe in any gods. An agnostic doesn't think it is possible to have knowledge of god's existence or non-existence.

Someone can be both agnostic and atheist at the same time (or agnostic and a theist).

Why am I either?

I'm an atheist because I don't hold a belief in any gods. I am agnostic towards the possible existence of some sort of non-involved higher power. Explaining why I think this view makes the most sense would probably take a while.

Answer 3

Many people who adopt the label of agnostic reject the label of atheist — there is a common perception that agnosticism is a more “reasonable” position while atheism is more “dogmatic,” ultimately indistinguishable from theism except in the details. Is this a valid position to take?

Agnostics may sincerely believe it and theists may sincerely reinforce it, but it relies upon more than one misunderstanding about both atheism and agnosticism. These misunderstandings are only exacerbated by continual social pressure and prejudice against atheism and atheists. People who are unafraid of stating that they indeed do not believe in any gods are still despised in many places, whereas “agnostic” is perceived as more respectable.

Atheists are thought to be closed-minded because they deny the existence of gods, whereas agnostics appear to be open-minded because they do not know for sure.

Atheists do not necessarily deny any gods and may indeed be an atheist because they do not know for sure — in other words, they may be an agnostic as well.
Once it is understood that atheism is merely the absence of belief in any gods, it becomes evident that agnosticism is not, as many assume, a “third way” between atheism and theism. The presence of a belief in a god and the absence of a belief in a god exhaust all of the possibilities. Agnosticism is not about belief in god but about knowledge — it was coined originally to describe the position of a person who could not claim to know for sure if any gods exist or not.

Thus, it is clear that agnosticism is compatible with both theism and atheism. A person can believe in a god (theism) without claiming to know for sure if that god exists; the result is agnostic theism. On the other hand, a person can disbelieve in gods (atheism) without claiming to know for sure that no gods can or do exist; the result is agnostic atheism.

It is also worth noting that there is a vicious double standard involved when theists claim that agnosticism is “better” than atheism because it is less dogmatic. If atheists are closed-minded because they are not agnostic, then so are theists. On the other hand, if theism can be open-minded then so can atheism.

In the end, the fact of the matter is a person isn’t faced with the necessity of only being either an atheist or an agnostic. Quite the contrary, not only can a person be both, but it is in fact common for people to be both agnostics and atheists. An agnostic atheist won’t claim to know for sure that nothing warranting the label “god” exists or that such cannot exist, but they also don’t actively believe that such an entity does indeed exist.

Answer 4

An atheist either holds no belief in any deity, or believes there is no deity to begin with.

An agnostic doesn't know whether any deity exists but believes that it's probably impossible to know one way or the other.

And you're right, that question is not new but I admire your curiosity and your willingness to hear other points of view. I'm an atheist because I am convinced that there is no god, or that the possibility of its existence is so vanishingly small that it's not worth considering.

Answer 5

An atheist does not believe in God. An agnostic is doubtful but not sure. I like to believe in a higher intelligence, or at least in a spiritual world, so I don't class myself as either.

Answer 6

agnostic beliefs are -there is no way to know if there is a god or not, no proof either way
aetheism- no god
monotheism-there is a god, and the earth is mans resource to exploit
pantheism- the universe and everything in it are god, each plant ,rock, tree,animal,man is a part of this unversal truth,harmony with nature, the goddess system was replaced withthe war monger gods many many years ago along with mans attitude towards the earth

Answer 7

Atheists don't believe in god, the devil, no deities at all. Agnostics are unsure if god exists or not, or say it's impossible to know if god exists. Atheists flat out say there is no god, period. While agnostics think maybe there is, maybe there isn't.

Answer 8

An atheist believes that there is not a supreme being and an agnostic does not believe or disbelieve in a supreme being.

Answer 9

What I've heard is that atheists believe that there is no god, and agnostics believe that it is impossible to know whether or not any god exists.

Answer 10

An atheist is someone who doesn't believe in the existence of God.
An agnostic is skeptical of the existence of God because they believe there is nothing to prove or disprove his existence.

I am neither. I believe in God.